Sadao Araki

Sadao Araki (26 May 1877-2 November 1966) was the Minister of War of Japan from April to January 1934, succeeding Kazushige Ugaki and preceding Senjuro Hayashi.

Biography
Sadao Araki was born on 26 May 1877 in Komae, Tokyo, Japan, and in 1897 he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy as a Lieutenant and fought in the Russo-Japanese Army, and he graduated from the Army Staff College at the head of his class. In 1918 he was promoted to colonel and served in the Siberian Intervention during the Russian Civil War, and in 1923 he was promoted to Major-General. In 1931 he was appointed Minister of War under Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai, but he supported Inukai's assassination by far-right patriots, and in May 1931 he unveiled the Amau Doctrine to Prime Minister Makoto Saito, a nationalist plan similar to the United States' Monroe Doctrine. He promoted totalitarianism, militarism, and expansionism, and he promoted spiritual Shinto training for the army. Araki was one of the masterminds of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria as Minister of War in 1932, and his plot led to Japan taking much of China. In 1936, the Kodoha far-right patriots struck again with the February 26 Incident, killing Prime Minister Saito but failing to take over the government. Araki was one of the men held responsible and was fired from the army. In 1938, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe appointed Araki Minister of Education, and he had that role until 1939.

After World War II, Araki was charged with war crimes by the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment for waging aggressive war. In 1955, he was released from Tokyo's Sugamo Prison due to poor health, and he died in 1966 at the age of 89.